My team and I are tired this morning because we were up late talking about great summer reads! Unboxing was a delight—I’m so happy so many of you could join us!
The public release for the 2022 Summer Reading Guide is on Monday May 23. Make sure you’re signed up!
We have gear for your reading life!
Our store is officially open, woohoo! We’ve created a cozy, stylish T-shirt, a book-worthy tote, and the most delightful book darts to accompany your reading life. Preorder yours now. We can’t wait to see you in your gear so make sure you tag us once it arrives!
My favorite finds from around the web:
- The Intersectionality of Hate. We have to call out hate for what it is.
- My Reading Life: A Book Journal is still $5 off on Amazon. Get yours now and start it for summer reading season!
- Once more with feeling: why time loop stories keep coming back. Interesting exploration of why so many of these stories are hitting shelves right now.
- I just reordered this Glossier body lotion—it’s one of my tried and true beauty and skincare products I never want to be without.
- The many, many costs of breastfeeding. Helpful analysis of why breastfeeding isn’t the answer for the formula shortage.
- Emma Straub’s Brooklyn Family Home Is a Book Lover’s Dream. The interior looks so HAPPY.
- The best $15 I ever spent: An audiobook subscription. Always great to hear from someone who’s come around to audiobooks.
- The Utopian Promises and Novelty Cheese of a Discount Grocery Store. Team member Chelsey was recently singing Aldi’s praises.
- Lavender lemonade. How to make the café and coffee shop staple at home.
- 18 Book Recommendations Celebrating AAPI Month. I love seeing what books authors recommend.
- Disconnect from work and let the horses of Iceland reply to your emails while you are on vacation. This cracked me up. Whoever is running Iceland’s PR campaign is brilliant.
- 10 Novels About Vacations Gone Horribly, Fantastically Wrong. Great list from this week’s podcast guests Strong Sense of Place.
Don’t miss these posts:
- 15 Re-readable middle grade novels that adults will love, too. The comments are a treasure trove!
- 10 beauty favorites I use (almost) every day. I look for reliable, dependable products that look good and go on easy so I can keep my morning makeup routine to three minutes or less.
Upcoming Events:
- May 23: 2022 MMD Summer Reading Guide releases! Details here.
- May 24: Live discussion with Bethany C. Morrow: Time for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club discussion of So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix with author Bethany C. Morrow!
- June 29: Live discussion with Mary Laura Philpott: Time for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club discussion of Bomb Shelter with author Mary Laura Philpott!
- July 26: Live discussion with Bonnie Garmus: Time for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club discussion of Lessons in Chemistry with author Bonnie Garmus!
- August 25: Live discussion with Peng Shepherd: Time for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club discussion of The Cartographers with author Peng Shepherd!
You can find more upcoming events here.
Have a great weekend!
11 comments
Great job to the whole team on the unboxing event yesterday! It’s always a fun time. I’ve been holding off listening to this week’s podcast b/c I love yours & SSOP so much that I want to savor it.
Thanks so much for including links about the intersectionality of hate and on breastfeeding- I really appreciate that you are using your platform to help provide interesting and fact-based reads on important issues, along with the other things that we love abut you and your site! Thanks for being multifaceted!
Agreed!
Ditto! Not to mention laws to ban reproductive rights further eroding the choices women have for their bodies.
Wonderful article on audiobooks! I purchased a subscription for Scribd earlier this year and it has restored my joy in reading. Usually, I follow along with print books–my own or the library’s–but sometimes I take a chance on something that would have been passed up otherwise. It has helped me focus more, as my concentration really struggles. Having started menopause at age 48, I now wonder if that wasn’t part of the problem, too, like the author. Really appreciate this article!
I relate to that article on audiobooks so much. For me, it was college that got in the way of my reading, and I struggled with reading much more than how-to books for decades, despite having been a voracious reader of classics and history and more throughout my childhood and teens. I just couldn’t concentrate any more. I went through decades of brain fog.
I did try audiobooks over the years, but I couldn’t get them to fit into my life until I learned that I have to multitask (running, walking, driving, cooking, crafts…) while listening, or I fall asleep. I hate falling asleep with an audiobook in my ears! It spoils the book for me, even if I have it set to automatically shut off Once I figured out my listening groove, I went from forcing myself through maybe one or two books a year to being a voracious reader again, and I am even able to read page turning genre books in “print” (on my iPad) again too. Now I usually listen to longer and more demanding books during the day and read lighter genre books in bed. Audiobooks restored my reading life, and I am grateful.
Wonderful job with the unboxing! So much fun – including the chat.
I appreciate your consistent articles analyzing important issues of the moment.
Audiobooks have been my reading lifeline this year. It’s been a bit of a challenging year, though I know I have much to be grateful for on a daily basis. However, my reading of e-books and physical books has suffered because of it, but I love being able to enjoy an audiobook while getting ready for work, driving, and doing basic household chores. I recently enjoyed Portrait of a Thief. I liked the caper combined with the issues addressed in the storyline. I also enjoyed the different POVs of the characters in the narration. Loving my audiobooks!
I loved the article on “OutHorsing your Emails!” Such a clever idea. Now I can devote my time to a vacation in Iceland.
And I loved the heartfelt article about audiobooks. I have never not been able to read, but I do so appreciate hearing a book (especially with accents! and foreign names!) and some of them are just masterpieces, better than reading it. So glad Amy Sullivan discovered it, even with such a sad reason to do so.
So excited to find your blog!! I love reading and look forward to reading some of the books you recommend on your blog!! Can’t wait to try the Lavendar Lemonade! Sounds refreshing and so summery!!!
That Vox article about breastfeeding is wild. What a horrible distortion of reality. Many of us broke moms breastfed, worked and pumped without needing all the expenses they listed. And quite frankly, I think it helped me sleep better and improved my mental health because it made feeding my babies cheap and easy.
I get that not everyone can or wants to nurse and the formula shortage is awful, but that’s no reason to write a hit piece about breastfeeding. Not cool Vox.
While there are reasons why a mom would choose formula feeding over breastfeeding it is a huge misnomer to say it’s not less expensive to choose breastfeeding. I breastfed both of my children and the price difference the author listed between annual costs of nursing versus formula is ridiculous. I laughed out loud at the illustration of the piggy banks attached to the breast! Now my youngest is 28 so obviously prices have increased; however my daughter has breastfed more recently and she didn’t spend anywhere near the amount listed in this article. I would never criticize someone for how they choose to feed their infant and the article feels like an attack on nursing. I’m willing to bet the author of the article has no experience in nursing or she would know better. How a mother chooses to nourish her child is her and her spouse’s business and there shouldn’t be a debate.